how well will my 147 push snow??

Tue Sep 18, 2012 11:48 pm

i have been using a qa42 but im not very happy with it. we have a stone driveway and on more then one occasion i have picked up a stone and got it stuck in the tractor. take tractor back to garage mess with auger to remove stone. i have the skids up all of the way and it doesnt matter i still pick up stones. anyways i was thinking about buying a blade; ultimately i would like to buy a farmall cub and put a blade on it but money might be an issue, so if i dont buy a cub im going to have to use my cub cadet. the cub cadet has a rebuilt k301 engine, but im not terribly happy with that either; engine knocks and has knocked since it was rebuilt. its not a rod knock and i cannot seem to find the source of the knock; after i rebuilt that engine i called the place that did the machine shop work and he told me that some of the old k series just knock for no reason. dont know if using one of those cheaper rebuild kits that include piston, rings, valves, gaskets, and rod had anything to do with it. that engine otherwise runs pretty good, it has decent compression and will fire right up. another big complaint i have with this tractor is the electric lift that the 147's have, they are junk. many of them failed throughout the years as did mine. someone replaced it with an actuator off of god only knows what. it lifts that snowblower really slowly; its actually too much weight for that junky lift. i see the prices of rebuilt electric lifts and be prepared for sticker shock. i bought one of those rare hydraulic lifts but it doesnt seem that retrofitting it on a 147 is going to be an easy task; which im guessing why it was never offered in the 147. seems like the frame gussets will get in the way. i think a blade would be less work for that actuator to lift.

what about duallys on a garden tractor? what does it take to set them up. would you install chains on both sets? it seems like the cub cadets have a heavy duty transmission but they just dont have enough weight when compared to a small farm tractor. i think if i could get it to hook up better i could push more with it.

i have a friend of mine that does not like IH cub cadets, he claims they are too heavy to use as a lawn mower but too light to use as a "real tractor" (as he calls it). he thinks they have allot of issues and in his opinion kohlers are not good engines. he seems to think that these old tractors wont stand being worked extremely hard. i disagree with him on this, i think cub cadets have their issues but its mostly because of their age. i think the newer lighter stuff is nothing but inferior junk. if im going to use my tractor this winter i want to show him what these little tractors can really do. he keeps calling them lawnmowers and i refer to them as small tractors. which one is it, we have spend quite a bit of time arguing this point.

Re: how well will my 147 push snow??

Wed Sep 19, 2012 6:23 am

The 147 was/is probably one of the better built Cub Cadets, and is definitely heavy enough to push some snow. The biggest thing about pushing snow rather than blowing it, is having somewhere to push it. Around here (western NY) I feel that blades are pretty worthless, as you eventually just run out of space to push the snow. Regardless, the 147 can push nearly as much snow as a standard Cub with a blade.

As for dual wheels, don't bother. There's absolutely no benefit when pushing snow. The only benefit of adding duals is for getting on soft, mushy ground without sinking. Adding dual wheels/tires, lessens your overall pounds per square inch on the ground. If you really want to be able to have good traction, use the narrowest tire you can get, and the most weight you can safely add. Turf tires with chains tend to have better traction than Ag style tires, or even Ags with chains.

I'd have to say that your buddy is a bit off his rocker. The Cub Cadet continues to be one of the best built garden tractors that you can buy, and there's not much that you cannot do with one. Heck, I've pulled around a 3000 pound boat with my Cub Cadets, OFTEN! The only real limiting factor on a Cadet is the ground clearance. They will easily run a roto tiller, snow blower, blade, pull a plow, etc. There are not many garden tractors out there that can put up with that kind of abuse, especially not 50-years of it. I know a lot of Cadets that are still going strong and are used daily!

As for your Kohler knocking, as long as it's not burning oil, I would not worry about it too much. It's probably the connecting rod slapping a bit, or could be valve noise, but if you keep her full of oil it should not be a problem. I have heard brand new rebuilt ones doing that. I've also seen brand new rebuilt ones blow up in the first hour after rebuild. It really depends on what was wrong with it prior to rebuild, and who did the work. A lot of times when a Kohler blows up, the connecting rod comes up and breaks off the lower part of the cylinder wall. It's below where the piston comes, and does not look to pose a problem, but the thought is that the break causes hairline fractures in the block, and weakens it. I've rebuilt ones like this and they're still running. I did one, a 10-hp, and it never ran right afterwards.

Good luck,Bill

Re: how well will my 147 push snow??

Wed Sep 19, 2012 6:34 am

i have plenty of space to push the snow, i live in north java and have a large yard. so your saying that this machine can push snow almost as much as a full cub? what about the lift on this thing? i dont care what my friend said, i know this is a well built tractor and now just a lawnmower as he calls it. i used to push with a john deere 112 and that would push quite a bit; my 147 is quite a bit heavier. after i rebuilt the engine and i had the knock, i removed the engine and checked rod, it seemed good and tight and the torque values are right where they should be. i might check the valve clearance. what about that stupid electric lift? can i replace it with a good modern actuator and will fit like the original? i see these lifts going for $300 on ebay. if my 147 will do almost as much work as a cub maybe i should just save my money..... not buy a cub and stick with my 147 and buy a blade for it. i would keep the snowblower for a really bad snowfall if the blade ran out of ideas. i have wheel weights how do i add more weight to the tractor safely? my engine has 48 hours on it since rebuild so if it was going to puke it probably would have done so already.

Re: how well will my 147 push snow??

Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:34 am

Sounds like you're in good shape for pushing snow.

I personally would take the electric lift to an armature shop to see if they can rebuild the motor. There's really nothing to them. I've had several CC starter generators rebuilt by an armature shop up in Niagara Falls for $75. All the lift is is a small electric motor and a worm drive gear. As long as the gears are good, the motor should be a piece of cake. A set of brushes and a good cleaning.

Yea, you're Kohler is probably fine. Some of them are just noisy. If it runs good and has pleanty of power, and doesn't smoke or use oil, I'd just run it. There'd have to be a serious problem with it before I'd go tearing into it just looking for things.

Re: how well will my 147 push snow??

Wed Sep 19, 2012 10:45 am

I push snow with my Cub Cadet 124 and the standard Cadet blade. I have a manual lift that works great, but I would appreciate an electric or hydraulic lift. But manual does the job nicely. Tire traction is good on my gravel driveway. I use standard Farmall Cub front wheel weights on the back of the Cadet. That's what IH intended. They are 26 pounds each and you can run two weights on each wheel if you want. These IH weights are expensive to buy used because they are so popular with both Cub and Cadet owners. There is a guy who sells reproductions of these weights somewhere in the links on this forum. His are identical to originals minus the IH emblems.

A couple of years ago I visited a JD dealership to see what they had for wheel weights for their green garden tractors. They had a set of used JD weights that are 75 pounds each. I bought them to use while rototilling, but they should be good for pushing snow too. Later I bought a set of JD tire chains. The price was similar to the online chains, but I didn't have to pay shipping. A source for Cadet chains is http://tirechain.com/23x8.50x12.htm.

Because it has a hydraulic lift I prefer pushing show with the Farmall Cub, but the Cub Cadet can get into areas that are too big for the Cub. Having a blade equipped Cub and Cadet is a great combination.

Ed

Re: how well will my 147 push snow??

Wed Sep 19, 2012 10:09 pm

gitractorman wrote:Sounds like you're in good shape for pushing snow.

I personally would take the electric lift to an armature shop to see if they can rebuild the motor. There's really nothing to them. I've had several CC starter generators rebuilt by an armature shop up in Niagara Falls for $75. All the lift is is a small electric motor and a worm drive gear. As long as the gears are good, the motor should be a piece of cake. A set of brushes and a good cleaning.

Yea, you're Kohler is probably fine. Some of them are just noisy. If it runs good and has pleanty of power, and doesn't smoke or use oil, I'd just run it. There'd have to be a serious problem with it before I'd go tearing into it just looking for things.

i dont know if you guys unstand what im saying the lift failed with a previous owner and instead of rebuilding it; he replaced it with something that doesnt belong. the unit that is on the tractor has a real struggle to lift the qa-42, it lifts slowly and barely is up to the task. this unit worked OK for the mower but the blower is just way too much for it. replacing it with the right part seems to be really expensive; people are always trying to get an arm and a leg for the stupid things.

Re: how well will my 147 push snow??

Thu Sep 20, 2012 7:29 pm

Yea, you're screwed. You can either rebuild what's there and hope for better performance, or add a spring lift assist (yes, they did make one for your tractor, and they're available), rig up a simple spring lift assist (not too complicated, take a spring and mount it to the frame somewhere, just to take off some of the load from the snow blower), or just put up with it.

The factory electic lifts were really not that great and were very slow. Your hydraulic pump on the 147 is not ported, so you cannot easily add hydraulic lift like you could on the next series of tractors (1x9 series or 1x50 series). That's basically your options. A snow blade is a whole lot lighter than the blower, but it has it's limitations too (as discussed previously).

Ironically, I have a blade that will fit your tractor, coming in a package that I just picked up in Ohio. The blade is like new and will go right on your 147. Should be here in October, if you want to come take a look.

Later,Bill

Re: how well will my 147 push snow??

Fri Sep 21, 2012 10:16 am

Your 147 shouldn't have any problem pushing snow. Weight and traction are the 2 biggest things. Duals won't do a thing. I run turfs with chains and add extra weights and never have any problems. Another thing you could do with the gravel is the first snow, leave an inch or so of snow down on the ground after the first cleanup. This snow will eventually pack down and keep most of the gravel where it's supposed to be. This could get a little slick though. Only works with a fairly level drive as well. Won't be long and the white stuff will be flying.

Re: how well will my 147 push snow??

Sat Sep 29, 2012 9:00 pm

On my 70 cub cadet i put one set of ladder ice link chains on the rear with two sets of rear wheel weights with the snowplow on the front. She can push snow, any snow, any depth. In the wet snow we need to take little bites dependinmg how deep it is but i will push it. I put the new ice cross links at every other link position. Bill

BTW; My cadet 108 with the creeper and 42" snowblower was faster at removing snow from my long driveway. I use my int154 with the creeper and snowplow and my 55 cj5 jeep tractor mainly now.

My neighbor got three single axle dump truck loads or dirt from a ford 700 i think its 4 or 6 yds each load. I just got my 70 cc running and i spread each load out level before the truck returned with each load. The little 70 cc impressed everyone bu8t they did laugh at first. Now they all have cub cadets for some reason. I just got the snow plow on my 70cc and wanted to see what it could do.